Greetings,
Today I want to remind us all as leaders and as members that we are the family of God. We are His children. This is the most important revelation that we can know and it is the most important truth that we can lead others into. When we see ourselves as children of God we can be led by His Spirit as sons and daughters. When we see ourselves as children of God we receive an increase of His inheritance in this world that leads to the fullness of all that is to come. The earth itself cries out to be liberated by the manifestation of the children of God.
Romans 8: 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
The highest calling in life is to be a son or daughter of God. This is what we live to be and this is what we lead others to know. We are not like we used to be. We have been born again as new creations into a new life. That life contains the blessing and the responsibility of bringing life to this world. God has moved into our lives! He has moved into the neighborhood! Christ is us gives us the glory of becoming a testimony of heaven in and to this world.
1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
I believe that Christ is continually increasing in our midst. When we see Jesus we are changed to become like Him. This is ultimately true when we meet Him in our final resurrection, but it is also true when we see Him in His resurrection life today. When we see Him in a measure of revelation we become like Him in the revelation we receive. This has been true though the past revelations of Jesus Christ that have brought God’s grace into this world.
Humanity can easily embrace that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ and not by works of law or penance. It requires a loss of human strength and pride, but the grace of the Spirit of Lord is readily available for everyone who reaches out to take hold of it. It is easier today that at any time in history. The reformers of the past centuries paid a price for this grace to come into the earth by losing their strength and trusting a God of mercy and love. It wasn’t by works of the flesh that this grace came, but by a willingness of God’s children to embrace being His children more than being bound to human understanding presented to them from the past or from the world around them.
There was a Great Awakening in the 18th and 19th centuries when the Holy Spirit brought about a grace of the Spirit of wisdom and faith towards God. In this season a fresh revelation of Jesus brought about a testimony of works that speak of our faith toward God and a standing as children of God who are set apart to Him in this world. It affected those in the church first and then it extended to reap a harvest of those in the world. When we saw Christ come as the one who inspires our hearts to do things that speak of our faith toward Him we became like Him in our endeavor to be children of God sanctified to Him in life. There was a great demonstration of works that speak of our faith. I believe this was a further step in the reforming and the reshaping of the church in the earth. We can all reap the benefits of a church that paid the price of letting go of less to receive more by a revelation of Jesus Christ in His continual coming into His body.
The Pentecostal outpouring of the 19th to 20th century revealed a testimony of supernatural power and unexplainable heavenly realities. The testimony of a heavenly language and outward manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit in our midst became a thing of celebration. The body of Christ experienced a liberation of the Spirit. Even the world experienced a liberation of women as women were recognized in their right to vote. Perhaps that freedom in the world was a witness to the external evidence of God’s Spirit and approval upon His bride. The blessings of God’s freedom in His church was also heard by seekers in the world as the embraced new things to be heart.
A revelation of Jesus Christ in the church during the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s revealed Christ in His body with the ability to minister to His blessing through body fellowship, the gathering in homes, and a care of healing, ministry, and life in a more intimate reality. Even this affected the cultures of the world. An aspect of fellowship with one another and an authority of individuals was revealed in the earth as God’s children embraced a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ in the midst of His family.
The 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s revealed a God who speaks to our hearts, empowers us to speak His words to others, and a testimony of His resurrection life in our midst. There was a revisiting and a reviving of God’s presence in the church and in the world. An individual sense of responsibly, power, and the presence of God was revealed as another measure of God reforming, reshaping, reviving, and renewing His family in the earth.
Now we see people groups crying out for community. That cry is perverted by the world, but it is a call of the Holy Spirit to see a generation of the church become more vulnerable, honest, embracing of others, and receptive to God as a Father who loves His children. Now He is coming in a greater presence to reveal us as children to our Father. He is moving into the neighborhoods of the world so the neighborhoods of the world can become expressions to the true community of heaven. He loves us, but His love also changes us! There is a continual progression of the manifest presence of Jesus Christ in His church. He is constantly increasing in the generational destiny of His body. We are grateful for how God has revealed Himself in the past generations, but very often we hold on to the things of the past and resist what God is doing in the present. We must not allow the thing that God did yesterday to become more important than what God is doing today. We must never reject the substance of what God has already done, but we must also embrace the furtherance of what God is doing now.
Blessings,
Ted J. Hanson
